How Will You Change Your Behaviour?

St Peter observed that a sow will return to her mire of mud and a dog will return to his vomit. From a human point of view, these behaviours are disgusting. (A pig's mire isn't exactly a spa mud bath, but more of a toilet-cum-bed.)

Peter's point? These animals have a certain nature that nurture just can't seem to rid them of. You can dress a pig up in a fancy costume and put it in a clean pen, but it'll return to wallowing in its own dung. You can bring a dog into your home and raise it as your own child, but it will still occasionally vomit - and eat its vomit. (It will also eat other excrements of its own.)

These are disgusting behaviours to us humans, but they're normal to these creatures. And they don't seem to be much worse off for them.

What's the meaning of the proverb? 

There are some behaviours that I despise in myself. Sleeping too late. Procrastinating. Getting enraged by idiot drivers. I find these behaviours unbecoming, undesirable, reprehensible. I tell myself, Never again. I tell myself, Better tomorrow. Then I do them again.

You can treat the dog as your own child, but it'll still eat its own vomit. I can have great intentions, but I still revert to nasty behaviour, sometimes.

What do you do, then? Beat the pig every time it wallows? Beat the dog every time it eats its vomit? The best that could produce is a compliant but nervous and frightened animal. Trying to "beat the hell" out of myself produces much the same: a nervous, frightened beast.

The only way a pig will stop wallowing in its own filth and a dog stop returning to its vomit, is if they were fundamentally transformed in their being. No longer a pig. No longer a dog. And if I want to change my behaviour, I must first change my being. When being changes, doing automatically follows suit. Thus, it's hardly important what you do, if you can determine who you are.

- Compulsive lying? Don't try to stop lying. Be an honest person. A thousand lies automatically cease.
- Trying to wake up early? Be an early sleeper. Waking problem solved.
- Stop trying to stop yourself from yelling at perceived idiots. Learn to be a compassionate person instead.
- And so on.

The thing is, how do we change who we are? It can't be done. We have to appeal to the creative power. We have to appeal to the divine: "Here am I; send me." And trust that in the sending, we will be transformed.

Look at how Christ healed some people. He told the blind man to wash his eyes (after he had put mud made from dirt and Christ-spit on them). And in the process of going to wash his eyes, the blind man was healed. Christ told the lame man to pick up his bed and walk. And in the process of picking up his bed to walk, he became lame no more.

When I need change, I seek the divine. I hear the spirit speak within. And then I act and trust. And then I'm healed.

And until that healing comes, I don't beat myself up for wallowing in the mire or returning to my vomit. Remember - the mud doesn't really harm the pig, nor the vomit the dog. But when I wake up in my true nature, I won't do those things that bother me any more.

Also, the fact that the pig and dog's behaviour bothers me reveals that I am of a higher nature than them. (Sorry, cute animals.) The fact that some of my behaviour today bothers me reveals that there is a higher nature in me that wants to emerge.

The struggle is not to struggle, not to fight and build, but to yield and grow. Until I wake up in the likeness of God.

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Alpha Lim struggles every day to rest and just be. Follow his adventures at his blog about the mystery of personal development and personal business ownership, at http://planBPilgrims.com/